Time Shift
by gelfling
Summary: Kaiserish fic, supposing Ken *had conquered the Digiworld...then what? The memory of Daisuke comes back to remind him of what he lost to get what he wants, and to take revenge. Angsty, with clashing inserts of humor. Yaoi, Kaisuke. Epicky. Ch 3 UP!
1. Meeting

Disclaimer:I am NOT character bashing anyone in here.  I use surveillance room and control room interchangeably because one is correct and I can type the other correctly.  Digimon isn't mine, I know, it's terrible.  It belongs to Bandai I'm afraid, and a bunch of other people.  My email changed to gelfling8604@yahoo.com.  Gak.

But Ken's whip _is_ mine.  So there, Bandai.  

Warning: Epic style, yaoi, Kensuke, limey-scenes in the making.

Character thoughts in italics, which don't always come out 

Love is the only fire hot enough to melt the iron obstinacy of a creature's will.

-Anon.

The Digimon Kaiser went his room with his feet dragging; he rarely slept at regular intervals anymore.  It wasn't uncommon; he had an entire empire to run, and when one's empire was a collection of metaphysical data and human dreams and desires…well, unexpected quirks were bound to happen.  

Lately it had been rifts in the Digital World's boundaries, whole pieces of land missing from existence, control spires popping in and out of existence.  It was enough to tire any 17 year old boy out.

Seventeen years of age, with sallow skin coloring and a lanky, more often bony, frame.  Shoulder length black sapphire hair when it was wet and straight, spiky and electric when it was dry and 'fixed'.  Twilight eyes, last but not least, wide and completely linked to his soul, whether he wanted to admit it or not.  

He had long since put a choke hold on his eyes and their expressiveness, crushing them with the same ruthlessness and efficiency that he used on everything he wanted to control.  

Now his eyes were the color of river stones; tired, dull, and old.  

The Digital Kaiser had ruled over the Digital world for as long as memory and archive served; which is to say, always.  He couldn't remember a time when he wasn't plotting the best way to advance on and conquer an area; he couldn't remember any other sky but the Digital World's.  

Why, one might ask?

Because there wasn't any others.  The Digital World had the only sky in existence.  

How had he gotten here?  

Simple.

The same way everything else did; what other way was there?

Ken typed in a code to let him into open the door on the sidewall panel to his bedroom; standard security measures.  He only slept as much as his body absolutely demanded, and now was one of those times.  He walked in.

"Hi there gorgeous; you got a beautiful view here."  

The Kaiser jumped three meters, or, would have, if he hadn't been so dead on his feet.  As it was, his back did arch and crack painfully.

Leaning by the window and facing the sunset was a…_boy?  _A _human_ boy?  How the heck…he was the first and only human existing in the Digital World…how was this possible?  The Kaiser's mind boggled at the new data.  Could he be hallucinating?

"What the _heck_?"  His voice sounded hoarse and the words fell out clumsily.  Even the devastating curse came out as a pitiful 'heck'.  When was the last time since he had last spoken to something?  Since before he had had the Kimeiramon program terminated, and that was months ago.  

"I bet you can see the for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles-"

"Silence.  Do you-"  

"Sheesh, no reason to get all huffy about it Ken, I was just saying thatcha gotta nice view up that wassal."  

The boy finally turned around, and the Kaiser was a last able to inspect the intruder.  He wore some of the ugliest, grungiest brown shorts Ken had ever seen, a juvenile blue shirt with yellow stars on the sleeves, and his _hair_…oh wow, what _hair_!  

A huge mass of tangled brown bushiness represented the boy's hair, held in place only by weathered blue-banded goggles that covered his eyes.  To top it off the boy wore one of the widest and stupidest grins the Kaiser had ever seen.

"How did you get in here?  _What_ are you?  Do not make me ask you again."  

"Ummm, I dunno, the same way you  did 'cause if there was another way to get in then I woulda taken that one  'cept how would I've known about it since it wasn't the one ya took.  And jeez, what do I look like?  A house plant?  Genius, sheesh.  I'm the most gorgeous-iest person on the damn planet, damn it."  

He glanced around the bare room idly.  "Ya know, for a genius you sure don't have much of décor sense, though the black silk _is_ a nice touch."  He was referring to the bed sheets.  Speculating the sheets appreciatively, he flopped on them, legs crossed and arms crossed behind his head and still grinning crazily at the Kaiser.

"What is your name?"  That really wasn't the most important question on the Kaiser's mind, but it was the first thing to pop out of his mouth.

"_What?_"  The thing all but shrieked.

The…_something_…boy it looked like, or giant badger, looked offended and shocked.  

"Ya can't really expect me ta tell ya my name and all, that's a very personal thing right there bubbo, and we've only just met and all, and, and," The creature seemed to fumbling around for a suitable reason.  "And I don't think that I'm just ready for that type of commitment yet.  I mean, in order for me ta give ya my name, you woulda hafta give me somethin' just as special and personal too, like, I dunno, like ta cut off your uh, ya know, clicker in exchange for my name."  

The Kaiser gaped, outraged, too accustomed to being revered and feared to remember how to convey the emotion properly.  The boy on his bed tilted his head thoughtfully.  

"Yeah, that sounds like fair deal, but I don't think you really wanna know that bad.  I mean, I know _I_ wouldn't want it that bad.  How would I go to the bathroom?"  He looked at the Kaiser's face, which was an interesting color just then.  "Yeah, I didn't think so.  I wouldn't wantcha to either….So…now that _that's_ over…"

"Unless you apologize this instant and start begging on your knees for my forgiveness your going to get a little impromptu tour of the dungeons and torture chambers and all their delightful inhabitants that live there."  It was a rather fast speech on the Kaiser's part, after a very long mute-ness.  He was out of breath at the end.

"Dungeons?  _Really_?  Ya mean it?  Jeez, ya really aren't so bad at _all_, I just _love _tours.  How didja know that anyway.", the Boy Creature bubbled over, looking unduly excited, and waved one of his hands around dramatically.  "Wowzie, a real dungeon, with ropes and chains and spikes and whips-"

The Kaiser's own whip lashed out, aiming at the strange boys face.  And then It disappeared.  The Kaiser blinked, and took off his glasses to squint better at the empty space on his bed.  

No smoke, no burst of digital data, no…nothing.  There was a tear in the sheet from his whip.  He placed his hand on the spot that the body had occupied, and found it…warm.  That was good, in a way.  It meant that his isolation was not driving him insane.  

It was bad, because…there was an odd Something wandering around his fortress.  And he didn't know what it was or how to stop it.

Instead of getting to sleep that night, he had headed back to the surveillance room, monitoring all the weak boundary levels for activity, and finding none.  But perhaps it _was_ possible for there to be other worlds that that Boy could have come from, though the archives had nothing to support the claim.  Ken had built the Archives up himself, and had downloaded much of the digital data wealth into them with his own hands.  He trusted them completely.

But that still didn't explain how he had disappeared, or how he had entered the flying fortress in the first place.  He didn't _look_ like a Digimon…  

Ken should have been afraid of not knowing anything, but he wasn't.  He had forgotten what it was to be afraid, as he had nothing here to challenge him or a potential threat.  He researched as thoroughly and as deeply as he did because…well…he was bored.  And interested…slightly.  Few things interested him.

­Hi there gorgeous 

********

Author's Rant: I started working on this piece…oh…3 years ago?  Hereabouts.  Anyway…this, Ladies and Gentlemen, is my baby.  This is my darling.  This is my smoochy-shmoo that I have been working on since forever and that I have put a lot of thought into.  This fic is, in fact, _not finished_.  But after 3 years I still thought I should post it so…I am.  This is the first chapter, but then this is a fairly long ficcy, a couple of 5-6 (I might be lying) chapters worth, and so no worries about this being _it_.  There's more.  No worries, except until the end where writer's block put a temporary stop on it, and Fox just fucked everything up…

Anyway…This is my baby.  I really like it.  I've been working on it for a long time.  Normally, I don't care if people flame me based on yaoi-haters but I will _not_ tolerate it on this one.  I'm very protective of my baby.  This is yaoi.  I love it all the moreso. 

Incidentally, I _am_ stuck, so _any_ constructive criticisms you can give, (ex. learn how to spell, Ken doesn't act like that, where's the plot, I'm completely lost) is absolutely adored.  Expect shifts in writing style.

Inspired by a very depressing fic by Athena.


	2. Serving

Yay!  People have noticed!  Yes, it is a Kaisuke (Daizer?), but yes that was season 1's Taichi Kamiya.  Throughout the ficcy, Daisuke is going to be changing clothes faster than Madonna, unfortunately we won't be seeing any skin for a while.  Future lemony-goodness in the making, much angst, and eventual character death.  Hopefully nothing _too_ bad, but I can't really make promises.  _Extremely_ eppicy.  Saga-ish.  You'll see what I mean.

Disclaimer:  Sorry?

Warning:  Yaoi.  Epic.  Er.  Yeah.

Archive:  Please?  à gelfling8604@yahoo.com 

********

It was late in the afternoon the next day when Ken finally decided to get to sleep.  He continued to replay the brief interlude with the Boy Creature over and over again in his mind.  He could have made a movie out of his memories, with his photographic memory and the amount of time he spent on revisiting that moment.  

He wasn't that impressive.  Far too short and geeky to be.

Every detail from the individual spikes of hair to the depth of the tan to different curves and angles of the smile.  Ken could tell by the way the Boy walked that he was right-handed, used to running or at least walking very quickly, and somewhat careless.  Over-confident, naïve, and dripping with mediocre-ness.  SO why couldn't the Kaiser stop worrying about him- it?  Stop thinking about him- _it_?  Envisioning him- **_it_**?     

What did It want anyway? 

He hated losing, the feeling of being lost and left out, of not knowing, mystery, and that's what the encounter with the Boy creature left him feeling.  

Not that he wasn't looking forward to finding him again, because it meant a rematch and a chance to redeem himself.  He kept a constant vigilance, every monitor in the surveillance room that wasn't dedicated to analyzing what that Boy Creature was watching every section of his fortress and all the places where the weak boundary areas where.  

_Where **is** that stupid **jerk**?  He comes out of nowhere and now he has **me** looking for him while he's God-Knows-Where!_

It was…disconcerting, to be waiting for someone, and not the other way around.

These were normally not the thoughts nor emotions that Ken enjoyed entertaining as he walked down the hallways of his fortress, but there you were.  And in result you had one very edgy and frustrated Kaiser.  And if you add the whole day without incident or progress, and a whole day of those types of thoughts and anxiety, you get a very pissed off Kaiser.  

He had accidentally caused two digimon to be reduced to digital data, simply because they were in an inopportune place at an ill timed point.  Several more suffered similar-though less severe-states.  

The Kaiser had stared at his bed with bloodshot eyes before climbing into it.  The area the Boy Creature had touched had already been scanned for chemical and organic traces, and had come up empty.  Ken had put his hand the spot where the Boy had been splayed, and could almost trick his touch into believing the sheets were warm instead of cold and hard.  

The Boy had so confident, so cheerful, so blatantly relaxed in a proven murder's room that the memory seemed…surreal.  

Sleep was troubled, and flighty. 

*****

Next morning…

Ken woke up at his usual time of 5:30, showered efficiently as always, and made his way down the dark hallways.  Even when he had been engulfed in mounds of work, so encompassed that he occasionally-actually quite often-starved; he had always found time to shower.  

Cleanliness was very important to him, and showers were one of the few aspects that made his life bearable.  One of the only really.  For some reason he always felt safe in the porcelain room, the water falling on him.

He was willing to discredit the whole ghost-boy affair as a result of over working himself and poor maintenance of his body.  He was not going insane.  He was not lonely.  He was perfectly normal. 

He was imagining things.  And since he had taken proper care of himself for the first time in years yesterday, the hallucinations had not come.  Nor would he…_they_, come, today.  

Shoulders squared, head high and back straight, Ken proceeded down the hallways as regally as 17-year-old boy is capable of.  Only better.  

Due to his improved mood, and because he didn't want to be bothered with it, he didn't eat breakfast.

The Kaiser fell asleep roughly after 785 minutes of work, and was awakened a few hours later by the grumbling in his stomach.  He had eaten breakfast yesterday, and lunch, which was a first, but not dinner because his stomach was unsettled, and hurled up anything he put into it, including some of lunch.  

Grumbling and stretching his facial muscles painfully-he had fallen asleep on the keyboard again-he ordered food from whatever ingrate was staffing the kitchen, and didn't bother to wait for a confirmation.  If no one had heard his demand, he would have the perfect excuse to trash and thrash somebody and hear them scream; it would help feeling grumpy and frustrated as he always was whenever he couldn't find an answer to a mystery. The archives were still coming up empty, but he had found a new section of data.  It was rather old, and it took the system a while to upload.  Ken wasn't eager to read it. 

He sighed and turned his attention back to the screens, stretching the cramped muscles in his neck.  His subconscious registered that someone entering the portal to the room.  

Damn.  Someone had heard. 

"Here yare Mac, that'll be 3.75 for the first cup and 50 cents for every refill."  Came a voice from beside his ear.  The Kaiser turned his head intending to smack whatever digimon had dared get so close to him as well as demand payment, even as a joke.  

Looking to his side was a white china teapot and cup in two dark skinned hands.  Human hands.  The Kaiser looked up and came nose to nose with a pair of grinning, or leering more accurately, red plastic Hawaiian sunglasses.  

Complete with little palm trees on the side.  

Letting out a high and undignified shriek, Ken backhanded the figure blindly, and scrambled out of his chair, hand on whip.  The figure let out a similar shriek, and bounced back. 

"Owwww _shit_, damn, ah crap _man_ just look at my shirt, it's all _ruined_."  He pulled his stained shirt away from him looked up at the Kaiser, who was a couple inches taller than him, with his eyebrows pulled down indignantly.  

"This _shirt_ cost me _twenty_ frixin' _bucks_ man, so that's going on your _tab_!  Ah, fuck…"  The creature was looking at the floor where several pieces of shattered china, brown liquid pooled in between the shards.  "And that'll _definitely_ costcha, even if I _can't_ get my boss ta charge _you_ for _my_ shirt.  That's a whole _17_ bucks right _there_, not _counting_ how many cups we _coulda_ sold."

The boy was dressed in a mulberry polo shirt, with baggy orange Hawaiian print shorts and light lavender hair.  Still spiky, but this time his skin was sporting a deep fried tan.  

"What?"  Confused, agitated, and hand burning and soaked from the liquid that had spilled on it.

The Creature looked at him reproachfully, like a teacher scolding a child. "_Tea_.  It's something that people _drink_.  And try not to spill.  _Ken_."

Ken paused, then rallied magnificently.

"Who the _hell_ do you think you are?  To call me by that-, _no one_ has permission to call me by that name."  Ken all but yelled, convinced that he was finally going insane.  _How did he know my name?_

"_Geez_, well _screw me_ sideways with a _paperclip_, next time I won't call ya _anythin_'.   Cause I sure as _hell_ ain't gonna start callin' ya _Kaiser_, that just sounds way _too_ weird."

"_What_ are you?"  Well, at least it wasn't likely that he was going crazy.  "_Who_ are you?"

The Creature's expression became bemused, and a little lost.  "Well, that depends, who do ya _think_ I am?"  

That snapped him.  

Nothing ever questioned him, not in this dimension, not in any other.

Growling rather impressively, Ken marched across the distance between them, hand inches away from ripping the ridiculous glasses off the boy's face and thrusting them down his throat.    He was close enough that he could see his reflection in the Hawaiian shades, the chip on the right tooth, feel the heat coming from the boy's forehead through the pads of his fingers.

His hand stopped in midair.  

He was paralyzed, his back arched painfully and frozen in place, his legs burning under the position that they were being unnaturally forced to endure.  He couldn't move his eyes either, they were latched on the maniac grinning in front of him, his own refection bewildered and just the tiniest bit unnerved.  The boy was unnaturally quiet and still, though Ken could feel the eyes behind the lens burning into his.  The room dropped a few degrees, and Ken was no longer unnerved.  He was scared.  

"Maybe I should have gotten one thing straight before I started serving ya breakfast."  Though still smiling there was nothing innocent or warm about it, the boy's voice was chilly, cold, words forced through clenched teeth.  "Never, ever, try to touch _me_, or my shades."  

Then he grinned again, the malice and chilliness gone.  "Guy's gotta have priorities, after all."  

And with that the paralyzation was broken, and the boy bounced passed the Kaiser and over to the Kaiser's, _his_, chair, and flopped into it.  

"We really gotta do something about your tastes though, this place is just way too Spartan, too dark.  Its so boring, geez, if I were the Emperor I woulda added a whole lot more stuff."  

Ken quirked an eyebrow from behind his own glasses.  He breathed in deep, and unconsciously clutched his arm.  _What was **that**?_

"Maybe some chili pepper lights and some neon sign pictures.  You seen those before?  They're really cool looking."

"Get out of my chair." 

"Awww, I ain't gonna break it, and these controls look pretty cool."  Fiddling with the controls on the right armrest, the back of chair reclined, the entire structure swirling in lazy circles.  

"It's _my_ priority, now get out of it"  

"No it's not, that damn cape of yours _is_.  And that blue bird's nest that you call hair.  I swear, I don't know _how_ you can go out in public with that thing, I know _I sure_ couldn't.  I'd probably die of embarrassment.  It just shows how insecure you are.  Trying to be something your not."  

The whip rang out against his better judgment, tearing at the back of the chair while the figure inside jumped at the sound and cringed, trying to avoid the lash.  "_What_?!  I _rule_ this whole world, what reason do _I_ have to be insecure, which I'm _not!_  I'm everything I want to be, you're the delusional one."  

"Sure ya are," the Boy Creature smiled cheerfully.  "That's just a way ta make yourself look bigger, stronger than ya really are."  The chair swerved to face the Kaiser.  That insufferable grin was still plastered there.  "Like birds or dogs do.  If ya ask me I think it makes ya look like a bat or somethin'"  

"I didn't _ask_ for your opinion."  The Kaiser took a deep, long breath, and restrained the urge to strangle the boy.  He had the power to come and go at will by teleportation, so provoking him would have been useless.  "All I _want_ to know, is what you are, and why you're here.  And how you knew my name."  

"Hmmm…" Still swirling lazily in the chair with his feet, his head tilted towards the ceiling and arms laced in front of his lenses protectively, the boy considered the question.  This position left his stomach and chest open for the Kaiser's perusal.  One well placed strike with the whip and he _might_ be able to have the Creature's innards out of his stomach and in his lap.

"Well, what I am, is well, a lot of things.  Some of 'em you know and some of 'em ya don't and some of them ya can't know and some of them I don't wantcha ta know.  And since that only leaves out with whatcha do know and whatcha don't know I'm just gonna do those ones if that's all right with ya?"  

The boy didn't wait for an answer.  

"Let's see, _you_ think that I'm ghost, challenge, threat, magic, a something of your imagination, a holowhatsits," the Kaiser stopped breathing.  The _thing_…could read thoughts.  

"An elephanism, no wait what was it you called it, a uh, a um, oh yeah a phantasm, a level, a default _mekan isism_, insanity, and a ummm, en, eng, anna, no what was ya said Kenny, it sounded like egg nog." 

_Kenny?  Oh god…_

"You don't have my permission to call me that."

"Hmm?  Call ya what?" the Boy said absently.

"By that _name_.  I _am_ the Kaiser and you will address me as such." 

The creature stopped its revolutions and constant grin long enough to puzzle out.  "Damn what was it?  The word ya used," he mused.  The Emperor studied him critically, aware that he was dealing with something of obvious power but limited intelligence.  "It's called an enigma."  

The creature smiled broadly, his dilemma solved.  

"Oh yeah, that was it, an enigma.  Like a puzzle or something right?"  He continued grinning. "But there was one thing thatcha called me that I still haven't been able to figure it out yet.  You only called me once, and not very loudly either.  Actually…I'm not even real sure it was _you_ calling me."    The boy smiled.  

"Koi."    

The creature continued to look up and whipped his arms off his face, staring straight into the Kaiser, poised above him, whip stretched out to strangle him.  Ken's eyebrows shot up, mouth agape.  The boy continued to smile.  "What didja mean by that?"  

The whip descended with breakneck speed, fully intending to break a neck.  And ended up strangling his chair and snapping the headrest off.  Though the boy was gone, the chair was again, still warm, and the china teapot and cup shards were still on the floor.  

*****

Anyone guess the motif?  It's Miyako!  Or it was supposed to be, from her "earth" clothes, not the Digiworld edition.  Er.  Yeah.  How do you like it so far?


	3. Campsongs

Disclaimer: Not mines. Wowzers.

Warnings: Kaisuke, yaoi, some swearing, messy kitchens, sleeping sicknesses…whatnot. 

There's MORE! Surprise, I hope everybody likes it.

_Ken's thoughts_

*****

_Okay, what am I dealing with?  Obviously not human, and it doesn't appear to be a digimon.  It can't be a ghost, because those aren't real._  Ken's brow furrowed, and he wiped some of the sweat that had gathered there away.  

But this is the Digital World, so I guess it's possible to save the data on a person and replicate a clone of that person, even if it is human.  I wonder if I could program a clone of  me.  No, I really don't need a doppelganger wandering around.  

_He… it… that _**thing**_, has the ability of telekinesis, to teleport when in danger, read minds, or human minds at any rate.  Don't know if he can read Digimon minds if they even have them._  _That's how he knew my name.  What am I supposed to call it, anyway?_

It bothered Ken that his mind was not private, but _not_ thinking was not even a considered an option.

_Why did he call me koi?  Or accuse me of assigning…**him**, that position.  A **him**.  That's unnatural.  He must be…not natural I guess.  But if he said he got it from my mind…he must have lied.  Not even under drugs could my mind think something like **that**._

_He feels, familiar somehow, but I can't quite place it.  He  flinched, when I tried to hit him, so he can be injured.  And he leaves body heat, so it's flesh and blood body.  Why didn't he want me to see his eyes?  Why was that so important to him?  Wonder what color they are?_  

Ken thought for a while longer, ignoring a slight cold pain at the base of his skull.  

_But why is he here?  And what does he want with me?  Not to kill me, since he could have done that by now if he really wanted it.  But since he obviously has power that I don't, maybe I can get him to tell me how he does it.  And then destroy him with it._

After all, one fought fire with fire, didn't they?

Ken worked at the screens for the greater part of day, after ordering a couple Floramon to clean up the mess and replace his chair. The days events had prompted him to open the older files, Section Z he dubbed them.  The name X was so overused.  The first part he had decoded was filled with a lot of garble of "Digiports", which was apparently what the weak boundry areas had been called earlier.    

For what good that did him.    

*****

The Kaiser paced down the hallways of his fortress.  He kept on expecting for the Boy-ghost to materialize at any minute, and begin plaguing him with whatever nonsense had got his fancy this time.  

This Creature, this Boy…some type of old computer program.  There was no other explanation.  Not exactly a Digital Monster, but perhaps a Digital Human, a Digiman.  

The term sounded phony, even to the Kaiser, but it was the best explanation he had right now.  

The closest thing to his equal in this world.  The closest thing to a worthy opponent.

As of now, the Boy was simply a distraction and a nuisance.  A disgusting and sick distraction and nuisance. 

The closest thing to his species he had in this world.  He wondered briefly where the rest of his race was, but stopped when the cold pain shot through his head, making his breath shallow and the floor tip until he slammed into the wall.  He breathed deeply through his nose, and waited for the sensation to pass.  

Once it did, he continued his journey.  

The attacks came and went whenever he worked too hard or thought too deeply.

There was a tickling sensation running up and down his throat, and his mind kept on wavering back to the encounters.  Not that he could really help it.  With all his enemies completely defeated and the Digital World unquestionably his, there wasn't a lot to occupy his mind.  Hunting down digimon was all fun and good, but the thrill, the challenge had been lost.  Being with this Boy reminded him of some that thrill, even if the Kaiser wasn't leading the chase.  

It was, ironic, in a way.  After fighting so hard and passionately for the Digiworld…he wasn't sure why he had wanted it.  

The cold feeling again, in the base of his skull, but not painful, subdued.  It was a thought that followed him to sleep.

*****

Ken slept deeply, not even having the energy for his subconscious to puzzle out the mathematical formulas that had replaced his dreams.  

The limp form stirred slightly on the bed, a greater force prodding him to napping, then to a light doze.  Ken woke slowly, something warm and gray and intangible rubbing against the edge of his subconscious mind, blurry pictures going past them.  One eye opened halfway, then shut.

From the moment I wake up 

What was that?  He didn't really care, and his mind wasn't up to the challenge anyway.  

An agonizingly warm zephyr traced it's way up his lower arm; similar to a summer draft, but far too focused to be wind or air.  _A chubby green toy…_

            Before I put on my makeup

Not quite half awake and still a good two third's asleep, Ken tried to open his eyes.

And couldn't.  

He couldn't move his arm away from the warm not-breeze or even turn his head.  He was a 100% awake now.  _I'm not alone…there's someone here, someone inside my mind…_  

He was paralyzed.  Ken had been paralyzed once before by that Not Boy, but this wasn't that.  It wasn't the dull metallic color of unnatural immense power and will.  This was a dark dead-blood color.  This was of fear.

            I say a little prayer for you

The friendly, physical, almost sensual presence brushed Ken's mind again, evoking a familiar yet alien scenario of a girl with long purple hair, and orange head and very large and round glasses.  Of a small blue animal exploding.  

Ken began to wish he could pray.  

I'm combing my hair now 

The mind caress again, this time passing teasingly over memories and emotions that Ken didn't even know he _had_.  On the outside, the focused air felt more solid, firmer, while it traveled over his arms and down his sides, massaging his stomach and running teasingly, frighteningly, over his thighs.  The feeling in his mind turned warm and oppressive, like a sculptors oven.  Whisper winds whirled inside his ear.  Smothering him and holding him and suffocating him and embracing him and entering him and choking him and it was too bright too bright too warm too hot too much too fast.

_Stop it  it's too much you're hurting me…_

            Wondering what dress to wear now

Ken's lungs were compressed together so tightly he was certain that the walls were touching.  He heart was battering back and forth against his front and back ribs till he was certain that it would break through the calcium prison or collapse and deflate forever.  

Another image formed itself in his head of it's own volition, this one a boy with cat around his neck and his eyes on top of his head.

Please stop I can't take anymore I'm not built for this please I'll do anything.  Ken was remotely surprised to hear himself pleading and begging so readily.  God please **please** deliver me from this please deliver me please don't stop don't leave me don't ever leave me alone never leave me never stop please more please please more and I'll worship you forever. 

WHAT?

            I'll say a little prayer for you

Cold, dry air rushed down Ken's throat as he gasped, choked, and breathed.  The cold was a devastating shock against the warmth and full body caresses that he had felt earlier.  The feeling…had vacated his mind, so completely that the immensity of the void and coldness it left in it's wake frightened Ken.

Frightened Ken.

Frightened…the Digimon _Emperor?_

The sheets were soaked with sweat he noticed, as his eyes darted around the room, searching for anything that might be lurking in the shadows or corners.  His labored breathing was loud in the space.  He was also suffering a sharp, warm pain near his legs, as if someone had inserted a fire heated knife at the junction of his two hips and body.  

He darted to the shower, purposely turning the water on freezing, trying to get rid of the unnatural warmth that was dominating his body, attempting to match the temperature of the water to that of his stomach and breast bone.  Not that it worked; his body only seemed to find the new setting painful and arousing.  Swearing in multiple languages, he stroked himself quickly and grudgingly, more pissed off than aroused or afraid now.  

He threw on his uniform and scurried as dignifiedly as he could to the control room, wanting the feeling of security and power back in his life. 

******

The Kaiser stared at the array of monitors, vocally calling them up and searching through them using the keyboard.  He had finally found something of value.  Apparently, he wasn't the first human to have entered the Digital World.  He was certainly the only one here now, but data had been found referring to others, termed Digidestined.  No data on the Digidestined themselves had been found, and Ken had to stop his search prematurely.  

Another attack had come, one that made him spasm and fall out of his chair and black out for the space of a few minutes.  He had woken up with chalky taste in the back of his throat and fuzziness in his mind that kept him from focusing.  

He was working on control spires now.

Ken's stomach growled, interrupting the tapping.  When was the last time he had eaten?  Yesterday morning?  He was sure he hadn't eaten dinner; wasn't even sure how he had gotten to bed last night.  Had one of his slaves done it?  An unlikely possibility, but since he was sure that he hadn't walked there…well…the alternative wasn't something that he wanted to contemplate.  

Last night's incident still burned in his mind whenever he tried to figure out what had happened.  His stomach growled.  He didn't want to use the internal comm. links, since those had obviously been tapped.  And as much as he didn't want to leave his sanctuary, ever, well…

His stomach twisted, making him squirm.  Well, maybe a domestic task, even one so menial, would help him get his mind off his problems.  Be a nice change anyway, from all the important and substantial business off taping digital energy from areas and leaving them wastelands.  

_Just as long as nobody finds out that the Digital Kaizer actually cooks. _

********

Ken walked nervously down the hallways, always checking his peripheral vision for spiky hair and glasses lurking in the shadows.  It was an action that made his angry, he shouldn't have to be checking the corners for a phantom just because of one bad dream.  All it was a dream, after all.  Well, maybe a nightmare, but nothing for him to be scared of.  Erecting 5 new control spires and watching Miramon incinerate a few acres of forest had improved  his confidence, though it had been kind of boring.  He almost wished that that irritating little Agumon that sometimes appeared and challenged him would show up.  Not that it did.

There was thumping sound coming from one of the corridor walls; Ken slowed his steps, suspecting a malfunction in the engine.  Had an Andromon gotten caught between the gears again?  But as he neared the kitchen, the thumping began developing a rhythm of crashing pots, as well as a voice.  The Kaiser's feet had halted at the voice, every fiber in his legs wanting to turn and walk away as quickly as his pride would allow.  The impulse was tempered only by his pride and anger because after all he was the Kaiser dammit, and no fashion reject with a few parlor tricks up his sleeve was going to scare him.  With that he had power-walked the remaining distance, gripped the door handle…and stopped.  

He could hear off tune singing coming through the door crack.  "I'm _sooo_ chill, no wonder it's _freezing_ ba ba da."  

Was this really a good idea, to just march in there?   Did he really want to face that maniac?  

"I'm sooo _stilllll--_, I just can't keep my fingers out of _anything_."  

Did he really have to?  

"I'm _sooooo_ *thrilled *- --to finally be _failing_."  

Of course he had to.  He was the Emperor.  

"That's probably why it feels just like I'm falling for the fi_rst_ time."

Ken shoved the door open posture and expression commanding and proud, and dominating.  

His jaw dropped.  The Boy Creature had that uncanny ability.

Both Ken and the Kaiser were incurable neat freaks, even if the Kaiser enjoyed bringing death and destruction to stuff as long as it wasn't his.  Both were having a heart attack right now, disbelief turning to despair and despair turning to anger in a heartbeat.  

Ken had the extreme urge to grab a garden hose and some bleach and never let go.  The Kaiser wanted to bring in a gallon or two of gasoline and a couple of matches and prevent whatever plague of cholera or e.coli was about to break out.

Him.

Indigo eyes flashed and settled on the prominent figure on the room, who was currently swaggering on the main counter, strumming a---_frying pan?_

The Boy had a black fetish today, wearing a leather jacket with a sleeve ripped off revealing a "I Love Mommy", tattoo, and poured on leather pants; the only clean article on him.  His hair was in golden spikes, around shoulder length, with blue-rimmed sunglasses glasses.

"Anyone _per_fect must be _lying_," The Boy stepped on two porcelain plates, shoving one to the floor and crushing the other underneath his leather boots.  

"Anything _easy_ has it's **cost**," the Boy swung his head down back and forth, swinging his hips in tune. Nails screeched against blackened metal. 

"Anyone _plain_, can be _lovely_," a foot kicked backwards and knocked some skillets of the wall as the Boy cradled his frying pan.  

Ken felt like coughing, an itch roiling the back of his throat.  

"Anyone **loved**, can be **_losssst_**.  *Bang, scratch, bang thump *"  Still strumming his pseudo guitar, the Boy spun jumped backwards to the floor, convulsing and bobbing his head like the blond guy from _Wayne's World_.  

"That's probably why it _feels just_ like I'm falling for the _fiiiiirrrrssssst_, *inhale * _tiiiiiiMMMMEEEEE_ deeer deeer, duuuummmm, yeah!!", the Boy tossed back his head, and grinned at the world, "BAAAAAAMMMM…….Yeah!  Thank You!  _Yaww_!"  

The Boy screamed, reminiscent of his previous screeching, and jumped back, skidding in some unidentified liquid.  The Kaiser merely smirked; it was nice to be in control again.

"Sweet mother of surfboards, diden anybody teachya notta go 'round sneakin' up on people like that man?  Geez Ken…"  The Boy stood up gingerly, still muttering under his breath.  "Jeezus mother of all things…how the heck long were yer standin' there anyway, dude?"  

Violet lens faced down MIB-style azure wrap-arounds.  

"Huccome you were ya watching me?  Dinya know that that ain't _nice_?  I mean, I know I'm a great dancer an e'erything, and all the girls say I'm beautiful, but jeez man, I diden know datcher interests _ran_ that way man."

"What are you babbling about now?  What way?" 

"Ya know, thadda way." The Boy jerked his head to one side for emphasis.  "Ya know?    Ya don't know.  C'mon man, ya gotta know, the birds and the bees, boy meets boy…Right?"

"That's…disgusting.  Simply.  Absolutely.  I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer."

"Oh yeah, then why were ya watchin' me just then?"

The Kaiser smirked wider, and answered smugly, "It's fun to watch idiots run around.  Makes the flatware look _so_ much more intelligent.  Is something burning?"

The Boy tilted his head.  "Wha-, heyyy-Oh _shit_."  Skidding again in whatever it was in the floor, the Boy Creature scrambled over to the restaurant size stoves, grabbing a pan handle (not his guitar) and screeching like a girl for the 13th time that day.  

The Kaiser followed leisurely, grimacing over the state of the floor stepping delicately around piles of egg shells and burned meat and cheese and puddles of water, milk, and some yellow stuff.  

So this Boy Creature could be burned, even feel pain.  _Interesting…_  Ken stepped behind the Boy, smirking again over his natural height as he looked over the Boy's shoulder.  

The Boy ignored him, too engrossed in mumbling to himself to really pay attention to him.  Ken looked over his shoulder, quietly observing the Boy poke smoking mass of black flaky stuff around.  He took a breath and wrinkled his nose, trying not to cough on the fumes.  

"What _is_ that?"

The Boy screeched again, almost fumbling the pan to the floor.  "Yee, _gawds_, fer the love of Pete…didn't I _tell ya_ about sneaking up on people fer _crying out loud_, it just ain't _nice_.  You don't _do_ that to people, especially not to me 'cuase I get excitable very easy and it's just not-"

"What do you think you're doing _now_?  I really can't say I appreciate you popping in and out at random.", Ken stated, grimly aware of all the exhaustion in his tone.  He was slightly surprised he wasn't nervous.

"What am I-Ohhhh, heh heh, what am I doing here today, you mean. Right, right."  The Boy Creature scratched the base of his skull, completely engaged in the floor.  "Well, um, I uh, kinda figured that maybe, well, since I've not really been the best of house guests-"  

"Or a welcome one."  

"Yeah well, I was kinda feelin', sorta bad that I couldn't tell ya a lot of stuff about myself, and this is all stuff that I know about yourself and you didn't tell me…Well, I thought maybe I should do something nice fer ya that ya couldn't do fer yourself."  

_Can't do for myself?_  The Kaiser's benevolence vanished.  

"So I made ya breakfast, or, anyway that's what it was supposed ta be, but it didn't come out just right.  But don't worry, yer fridge is pretty well stocked for a guy that doesn't get out much, so there's still more."  The Boy grinned a little sheepishly, and shrugged.

Ken and Kaiser stared his discomforting cat-like stare at the Boy Creature, both battling and registering separate reactions.

The Kaiser stood there for a few seconds.  A large, no a humgous part of him wanted to grab the Boy by his skinny neck and smash his face onto the burner, which was still hot, and watch the pale flesh boil and bubble and eventually peel off the bones.  This impulse was countered only by the lessons of earlier encounters and a developing self-control.  
  


Ken however…

Ken was touched.  

Deeply, sincerely, touched.  This was the first time in a long time that  anyon- any_thing_, had actually gone out of their way to do something for him that he hadn't ordered.  And he wasn't sure how to react to it. 

"Sooo, let me get this straight," the Kaiser theorized, speaking quickly, "In your mind, if you did something… 'nice', as you put it, for me, like making a war zone of yet _another_ section of my fortress, and burning some…_thing_ to a crisp; that it would somehow redeem your actions for the past few days in which you've been making my life a living _hell _and_ fucking with my mind_?"  The Kaiser lowered his voice from the shriek it had become, visibly groping for control. 

Funny, he wouldn't have allowed his emotions to show this much a few days-   

"Couple."  The Boy's expression was blank, although the omnipresent smile was still there.

"_What?_"  

"Couple.  You said few.  We've only met fer two days.  A few is three."  

"_Whatever_.  I'm not the one whose English needs correcting it's yours."  

"English?  I thought we were speaking Gibberish?  Or is this Japanese that we're speaking right now?"  

"_Just_… shut up, all right, just shut up before I do something…"  The Kaiser groped for words, his mind smudgy with anger.  

"That you'll regret?"  The Boy supplied helpfully.  

"I thought I told you to _shut up_!"  

"Yikes, someone woke up happy."

"Look, just…just stop changing the subject all right."  The Kaiser inhaled deeply, not that that it helped much.  "If you really think that some half assed attempt-"  

"_Language_."  

"_Fucked_ attempt at edible matter is really going to, to, to accomplish anything, you're even _dimmer_ than what I had earlier surmised."

The Boy watched Ken with the same careful blank look.  Then he grinned flirtatiously.

"Ya know…yer kinda cute…when you get all indignant and blush like that."  

The Boy smiled admiringly at Ken's gape, before switching moods to radically.  He was the only person Ken knew who could be indignant and smile at the same time.  

"And ya make it sound so _easy_, a cinch even.  And iz not, not even fer you, allright bud.  Do ya know how long it took me ta figure out that if you don't put that yellow stuff," 

The Boy waved at a random puddle, "in before everything else everything gets all sticky and fucked up.  And izsnot like yer a five star chef yerself, pal.  You suck so bad that you don't even _eat_ anymore, yer that jacked up."

Ken leaned back, mild surprise playing across his face.  "You must not understand, I'm a genius.  It's not possible for me to 'suck' at anything.  The very concept is ridiculous."

"Yeah, yeah whatever man."  The Boy snorted.  "Bet you couldn't even cook to save yer own life there, pal."

The Kaiser's eyes narrowed.  Ken grabbed the panhandle away from the Boy, covering the Boy's hand with his own.  The second before their skins touched, the Boy disappeared.

*****

The Boy  stared critically at the heap of scrambled eggs in front of him.  He had popped up a few minutes earlier, stretching his arms and asking how Ken had gotten along without him.  The Kaiser, seated across from, watched the Boy…a little nervously, if we're going to be honest.  

"Looks a hell lot like baby vomit to me."  Ken glared at him from above his own pile.  "If ya ask me, I think this junior wasa lactose intolerant who found his way into the ice cream carton, don't you?"

"I am not even going to bother, describing what your… cuisine, resembled.  It was pretty obvious."  Personally, the Kaiser thought it looked like Gabumon intestines roasted on a spit.  

"Great!  I thought it was pretty too, in a crispy sort of way.  Nice of you to say so though."  The Boy started gulping down the food at an alarming pace, despite his previous grousing.  

Ken gaped for the second time that day; the Boy had that effect on him.  _How can he breathe and eat at the same time like that?  Eat…this Boy Creature eats!.  Which means that he requires organic nourishment, just like every other living being.  But not every other being can do what he does.   _

"Why did you leave earlier?  I wasn't going to hurt you, at least not just then."

The Boy shrugged, the fork hanging out of his mouth.  "Ya tried ta touch me.  No touchy, na e'er, no madder wha."  The Boy shrugged again.  "Ya know, one o' those things thatcha jus can't do nuthin' about.  N/A, can't tell, gracias pero no."  Then he started shoveling food down his throat again.

Ken watched bemusedly; he really should be furious with this Creature, who was uncovering depths of patience he didn't know he had.  The Boy had a way of igniting his anger and defusing so quickly with curiosity, or disbelief, or…

_Humor._  Ken lifted his fork, though half of the Boy's own food was already gone.  _What I felt earlier, when I walked in, that was humor_.  His eyebrows squenched together, and he pushed his food around.  _When was the last time I felt that?  Weeks, months-years, even?  Is that normal, for someone?  Even a genius, shouldn't they feel humor once and a while, or is a way of making me stronger, part of my punishment, to keep-_

"Hey you gonna eat that or what?  Didja put poison or something in it, is that why your not touching?"  The Boy stopped chewing, which he still had been doing while he was talking, and checked his pulse.  "Feels normal...what's normal?"

Ken snorted and rolled his eyes, and took a bite.  

_Hmm, not bad.  Not great, but not bad.  Better than expectations, but not as good as…_  Ken swallowed.  _Somebody else's.  Somebody that I don't know about, so I really can't compare it to anybody else, because I've never tried anybody else's.  So where did I learn to make it?  _Ken took another bite.  The Boy, noticing that neither was passing out or convulsing, returned to swallowing his own_.  To many questions now, questions that I don't know the answers too.  Ken looked across the table.  The Boy being the greatest mystery of all.  _

The Boy spilled some eggs impossibly on his black shirt, dryer limp and long, hanging off his frame, showing a great deal of clavicle and suntanned skin, and with multiple brown spots on the front.  The egg was just one more spot.  Ken's eyes strayed a little longer than necessary on that spot.  _It's the shirt.  Of course it's the shirt.  It's very…different, from anything of mine._

The Boy's fork clanged on his plate.  "Okay, I'm done, are ya done, so iffer yer done than we can go now?"  Inhale.   "Sooo yer not completely done yet but you will be soon so let's hurry up so we can go oh yeah and one other thing do you want me to help you 'cuase you look like you need help do you want help I can help real easy no problemo and at no extra cost."  
  


The Boy grabbed his fork and leered over Ken, almost crawling on the table and eyeing the Kaiser's food eagerly.  Ken stabbed his fork in front of his plate, feeling much like an explorer stabbing a flag in the ground claiming the eggs in the name of Spain.  

His eyes met ocean lens, fully intent on glaring the Creature into submissness, but instead found the picture of the Boy laying half on the table much more…engaging.  He had a perfect view down the Boy's shirt and chest—_Stop thinking like that!_  They stayed frozen that way a couple moments longer than necessary, the grin never wavering, and the eyes never straying despite the Kaiser's provocation.

"No, I am not done; I don't care if you are…and not really surprised at the rate that you were going, and where _exactly_ were you planning to take yourself?"

The Boy grinned.  "Yourself too, Kenny-san."  Ken's brows went up, illogically not angry at the name mutation.  The Boy didn't seem to notice, and gushed, "Aw, come on dude, it'll be fun.  When was the last time you had fun anyway?  We can go do something, like soccer of something, 'cuase, after all, all work and no game makes Ken a dull dumb and very dead boy ya know."  Ken's lip curled up to a sneer, a comment on the tip of his tongue.  

The Boy snatched the opportunity first.  "An' before ya yell at me jus wait a sec man 'cuase this time I'm right.  Lookitchu man, ya look like yer gonna be slammed down any sec by those dang bat wings ya got 'tatched ta yer shoulders.  I canna leave ya yet, not like this."  The Boy leaned in and whispered conspiratorially, closer than Ken would have liked.  "An' anyway, I might ackshually answer one o' them questions thadda been keepin' ya up in the jet." 

The Boy sprang back and raced towards the door, skidding in puddle and instead slamming into the door and tumbling face first into the hallway with a shriek.  

The metal door swung close with a clang.

The Kaiser watched mutely, struggling not to move.  He scowled at the ceiling.  A spatula tottered off the counter, and landed with a splat in some liquid.  

One of the Elecmon must not be doing his job; it felt warmer.

******


End file.
